Ref Review: The Heartland 7s; Great Tourney & Great Final

Cody Kuxmann • July 11, 2012 • 18 Comments

The Ref

Cody Kuxmann is a Referee at the London Society Of Rugby Football Union Referees, while studying International Relations at Richmond, The American International University in London. He lives in Richmond Upon Thames but hails from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

KANSAS CITY, MO – This weekend I had the privilege to take a road trip on down to Kansas City to referee at the Heartland 7s. Throughout the day teams came from as far as Fort Worth, Texas and Aspen, Colorado. It was a very competitive tournament, with two of the games in the finals – including the Championship game – going into overtime.

Congratulations goes out to the Kansas City Blues for winning on their home turf. Perhaps one of the most exciting games of the day came in the final between the KC Blues and the Denver Barbarians (who named Team USA 7s star Mark Bokhoven as their 7s coach – click this). The game was very tight all the way through, however the Blues took it home in overtime while having a 6 on 7 man-advantage, due to a undisciplined Denver team. Sorry, the referee in me just came out… But the Denver squad had to be bushed – what with the travel and the heat.

… Which is the perfect segue for my Rant Of The Week. So here goes: Rugby should never be played on field turf! Okay, perhaps I just hated field turf this time because of the extreme heat; the day was 106 degrees (41 Celcius). However, on the turf it was more like 130 (54 C), and this is not an exaggeration. I thought my cleats were literally going to melt completely off! Now, I’ve reffed on some very nice turf – at the University of Minnesota’s Football stadium, for instance. I’ve also reffed on some very questionable turf. Yet, I’ve always found that I like grass much better – and not just for perspiration purposes. The bounces are generally more predictable, the players are livlier and there is much less of a chance of getting turf burn. With the IRB looking to introduce turf into the game, these things need to be considered. I’m for grass-only IRB matches.

I welcome your comments.

Heartland 7s Champs! Well done.

Filed in: Cody Kuxmann
Tagged with: Aspen • Denver Barbarians • Fort Worth Rugby • Heartland 7s • Kansas City • Kansas City Blues • Mark Bokhoven • Sporting KC • Texas Rugby Union

http://www.facebook.com/people/Junoir-Blaber/512502691 Junoir Blaber

Cody, I know you are a young lad so you may not remember the days when Rugby was played on rocks and dust bowl. With no grass down the middle of the field. Turf, at least in the US, allows rugby teams to share fields with other sports and not get accused of ruining the field. Also get to play in more parks by having turf.
- Old Props Never Die
  
  Amen. I have most of my lingering injuries from slamming into rock and drain covers.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Junoir-Blaber/512502691 Junoir Blaber
    
    I played once on a field with a manhole cover. There was a piece of Cardboard there to cover it and each team had an unwritten agreement not to tackle someone onto it.
- http://www.facebook.com/ckuxmann Cody Kuxmann
  
  You’re right, I am a young lad, who has never had to play on it, I got to ref on a field where I thought my ankles might break due to the gigantic cracks in the dry ground, but other than that, I’ve never dealt with to bad of a field. Then again the Wisconsin in general has some fairly reasonable weather for naturally keeping grass.
  - animal
    
    It really depends on where you’re from. The NYC players, espcially the New York Rugby Club, love the new turf fields. The crap we played on was brutal. Like Old Props said…
    - Twinkletoes
      
      But it gets hot right?
  - http://rugbywrapup.com/ RugbyWrapUp
    
    Heat doesn’t pick out age. Hot is hot. The melting cleats are all one needs to know.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1317470730 Grant A Cole
      
      Texas A&M used to host the Hotter Than Hell 7s tourney in July. In 1998, it was 104 degrees and we had 7 pitches on the old Polo Fields – patchy bermuda grass growing out of concrete. I think referees Chris Callan & Jim Wolfinger actually had to change shoes from wear & tear at the mid-day point!
      - LongLad4
        
        Those fields were a chiropractic’s dream!
AndyB

I reffed the Barbos against Ft. Worth in the quarters down in Texas on the day of the US v. Italy match, and they looked head and shoulders better than the competition all day (I was AR for a couple of their earlier matches as well). That tournament was played in brutal Texas heat and humidity, but on grass. It was oppressive, but not unworkable.

Fast forward a couple weeks to the Old Blue 7s on beautiful Randall’s Island. Temps were in the upper 90s, and we were down a ref due to illness. As a result, we were doing lots of back-to-back matches on the turf. I ended up doing 10 matches on the day, and the soles of my feet were literally burned – couldn’t walk properly for a couple days afterward. Mind you, this is loads better than a few years ago, where dust, rocks and various unmentionable objects on the pitches meant that you needed to double up on the tetanus shots before playing. I love the turf in concept, since it allows the volume of field availability necessary for a city like NY’s dense population (not just rugby, but soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, etc., which can be scheduled basically all day every day without concern for the fields being overplayed and destroyed), but there needs to be some way to water down the fields to cool them down every couple hours.
- kick to the box
  
  You suggesting we pee on the fields?!
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Junoir-Blaber/512502691 Junoir Blaber
    
    Yeah cuz no one does that now, we are too civilized for that.
- http://rugbywrapup.com/ RugbyWrapUp
  
  Well said, Andy. We may have to enlist you as a guest columnist!
  
  And kick to the box… Bear Grylls would do it.
http://rugbywrapup.com/ RugbyWrapUp

Nice to see the K.C. Blues and the Barbos getting some ink! Nice work, Cody. The grass vs turf argument really isn’t one… We all agree that grass is the optimum choice. It’s just a matter of availability and upkeep. Rugby clubs rarely have a separate pitch for training and usually have to share with the other teams/sports in the area, so they get torn up pretty quickly. We’ve seen those NYC fields before and after – played on them in both cases – and the turf there is a godsend – provided it’s 70 degrees Fahrenheit are lower…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Junoir-Blaber/512502691 Junoir Blaber

Why are they wearing soccer Jerseys?
Adnand

final was between Glendale and KC… Barbos got 4th just fyi
- JeffNZ
  
  How do you get the final wrong on a tournament you went to?
http://www.facebook.com/Trigeiatwin Daniel Peeden

I have several years of experience playing on artificial surfaces. Athletes feet burn very bad. I believe the turf gets up to around 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Could this problem result or lead to some of the injuries that are believed to be associated with turf? I have tried to find a product that prevents or blocks out the heat and one that I found was a company called Turf Insoles ( http://www.turfinsoles.com ) Hopefully, there product will help athletes and perhaps prevent some injuries.